Fitzroy history – the ‘push’ or street gang
Readers may be more familiar with the term ‘push’ from its use to describe libertarian groups in Sydney in the 1950s. I’m still coming to terms with the exact meaning of the word ‘push’ as it is used in the context of nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia. A ‘push’ sounds like a simple street gang involved in drinking, fighting and random mayhem, but there’s more to it than that. Rapid growth in urban populations, along with high unemployment, poverty, high rental costs and inadequate education and social services resulted in high rates of petty and serious crime in Fitzroy in the late nineteenth century. Street gangs or ‘pushes’ evolved and remained prevalent until the 1930s.
Pushes seem to increase and decrease in activity over time, and different ones emerge in each decade. In this article from the Argus, Tuesday 15 March 1898, p3, we learn that the Westgarth St push is newly formed, and that the Webb St push has been mostly broken up by the police. In 1914 the Primrose push has about 150 members (see above article). Pushes active in 1919 were the Little Campbells and the Roses (see the Argus, Friday 12 December 1919, p9). In 1925 the Wanderers and the Checkers seem to be the dominant pushes (December 1925 article below) and it had up to about 200 members (the Argus, Monday 19 April 1926, p12).
An article in the Argus, Saturday 5 December 1925, p37, refers to efforts to ‘prevent a recurrence of the notorious ‘push’ terrorism of a few years ago’, and the frequency of reporting push problems, and their severity, does seem to decrease from about this time. It is evident from this 1941 article and the 1945 article (below) that the ‘push’ was already being used in the past tense as a historical reference.
The Argus, Saturday 23 June 1945, p11 (supplement) provides a useful introduction to the history of the push movement and its connection to the larrikin character.
Pushes were urban gangs, made up mostly of youths (‘shambling, weedy young larrikins’ in the following article) led by older larrikins. The Argus, Wednesday 11 March, 1914, p15, reports that:
Kicking people when they were down was considered a signature push tactic:
The establishment press was usually scathing of the moral and intellectual nature (or lack thereof) of larrikins and push members (similar to Catherine Deveny‘s views on today’s suburban bogans), such as in this example from the same article about the weapons used by larrikins in a fight between two pushes:
Attacking and outnumbering opponents was another push tactic, as in this example from the Argus, Monday 15 March, 1915, p4:
Fights between pushes were not only a matter of turf war within a suburb, as the Primrose example above shows. Push fights also occurred between pushes from different suburbs, such as in the following example as reported in the Argus, Monday 8 January, 1923, p6:
The use of guns was common and resulted in fatalities, including this case reported in the Argus, Friday 19 December 1919, p9:
By our standards, these youths were hardcore and they make Underbelly look soft. Life in turn of the century urban Melbourne would make great television.
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Other posts you may find relevant and interesting
- Fitzroy history – the phantom army on Queens Parade, 19 September 2009
- Fitzroy history – the Trojan princess of the Primrose push, 21 September 2009
- Fitzroy history – fight in a Chinese laundry, 18 October 2009
- Fitzroy history – indulging in a drunken orgy, 30 May 2009
- Fitzroy history – hoodlums loitering and obstructing the footpath, 24 September 2009
November 10th, 2009 at 8:39 am
Thought I’d add a link to Henry Lawson’s 2 poems The Captain of The Push and The Bastard From the Bush.
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November 10th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
I recently read Razor by Larry White and many inner-Sydney pushes are mentioned. As an aside, my dad was in the Sydney Push in the ’60s.
More about the book here: http://www.echonews.com/832/book_reviews.html
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